Yukon Energy

Yukon Energy

Yukon Energy Corporation (YEC) is a Canadian Crown corporation in the Yukon.

YEC is a subsidiary of Yukon Development Corporation and was established in 1987 to take over the Yukon assets of the Northern Canada Power Commission. YEC generates virtually all of the Yukon's electricity supply, and distributes power to most locations outside of Whitehorse. Their largest customer (a wholesale buyer) is the Yukon Electrical Company (YECL), a private business that has been operating since 1901, which itself has some smaller hydro operations, and serves primarily the Whitehorse area. YEC itself provides customer electricity directly in Dawson City, Mayo, Faro, Champagne and to some isolated individual customers.

YEC has developed a grid that connects hydro facilities in Whitehorse (Schwatka Lake Dam - 40 MW from four wheels, the fourth added in 1983), Aishihik Lake - 30 MW, and the YECL facilities at Fish Lake near Whitehorse. The communities on the "Whitehorse-Aishihik-Faro" grid include Whitehorse, Haines Junction, Champagne, Carcross, Tagish, Marsh Lake, Johnson's Crossing, Teslin, Carmacks, Faro, and Ross River.

YEC operates two wind turbines on Haeckel Hill near Whitehorse connected to the Whitehorse-Aishihik-Faro grid. The first turbine is a Bonus Energy 150 kW MARK III installed in 1993. The second turbine, a Vestas 660 kW V47 LT II was later installed in 2000. These units need to be specially adapted to deal with icing and the northern environment.

A second grid, brought on-line in 2004, connects Dawson City (reliant on diesel power from 1966 to 2004) via Stewart Crossing to Mayo, Elsa and Keno City drawing on the 5 MW hydro facility just north of Mayo that had mines at Elsa as primary customer until 1989.

The government of John Ostashek (1992-1996) had promised to connect Mayo, Stewart Crossing and Pelly Crossing to the main southern grid at Carmacks. To date, this project has not been developed, and Pelly Crossing remains on its own diesel generator. There are preliminary plans at this time to possibly proceed with such a connection, with interest in using it to provide power to two new mines in the Minto area.

Yukon Electrical Company Limited operates diesel generators to serve customers in Watson Lake-Upper Liard, Swift River, Burwash Landing, Destruction Bay, Beaver Creek, Pelly Crossing and Old Crow. The possibility of a grid connection to Atlin, British Columbia has probably been eliminated by a decision to construct a hydro project near Atlin.

The Yukon has no connections to the continental power grid, therefore, YEC cannot sell to or buy from networks in Alaska, British Columbia, Alberta or the Northwest Territories. In addition to the extreme expense of such transmission lines, they would also be subject to disruption from solar flares.